Homeless Veterans – Facts By the Numbers

Published Statistics Vary Greatly

I’ve seen a lot of statistics that vary from source to source all over the place. Most of them not referencing their source, many of them not being specific on the definitions or the exact group being cited. I’m going to attempt to put down some numbers that come from trusted sites and clarify the statistics as best I can. Links are to sources. We will try to make sense of these numbers in a later post – stay tuned.

The total population of the United States:

As of May 19, 2007: 301,875,007. Source US Census Population Clock. If the number above doesn’t agree it is because we have a net gain of one person every 11 seconds.

Where veterans Served:

Homeless veterans:

There are 200,000 homeless veterans on any one day, up to 400,000 during any year; 97% of the homeless veterans (194,000) are male, and 3% (6,000) female on any one day. These are the VA’s best estimates. No one is really counting. 56% (112,000) are African American or Hispanic.

Of these 45% (86,000) suffer from mental illness and (with considerable overlap) 73% (146,000) suffer from alcohol and substance abuse.

Total US homeless population:

2005 Estimate: Approximately 744,313 people homeless on a single night. This includes 56% in shelters, 44% unsheltered; 59% single adults, 41% in families (98,452 families counted); 23% chronically homeless (171,200 disabled and long term or repeatedly homeless ). The 172,000 chronically homeless use up 50% of the services.

Of the total homeless population, 66 % (491,000) are males; 93% (456,700) of homeless males are 25 or older; 41% (201,000) of the males are employed as compared to 27% (68,300) of females.

Calculated Results:

43% of homeless males 25 and older are veterans. How do I arrive at that value? The number of homeless males 25 and over is 456,700 and the number of homeless male veterans is 194,000. I beleive this is as valid as the counts that make up the data. There are less than 1% veterans under 25 and about 0.3% homeless women veterans.

27% of all males over 25 are veterans but 43% of all homeless males are veterans. There is a disconnect here, the percentages should be about the same. This 27% calculation uses 24,910,000 male veterans 25 and over and 92,823,000 US males 25 and over.

Stay tuned – work in progress – this post will be updated and a new post will massage and chart these numbers.

Community Prosperity Partnership (CPP) is a collaborative effort between VA and affinity associations. The program was established by VA and the League of United Latin American Citizens with the support of the Church of God supporting veterans interest at the local community level.